Born 1940. M of Sc in Operations Research and Management from Technological University of Denmark. Bachelor of Art in Philosophy of Social Science Methodology. Phd and later Dr Sci (dr merc) from The Aarhus School of Business.

BOOK II offers a critique of interpretations made to look like explanations, expretations. Next it offers a more precise expansion of explanation as a multi-level endeavour. This not only make it possible to integrate different scientific disciplines into a whole, it may also help us to get a grasp of the social change along a time line. A perspective, which the author conceived during his work with longitudinal cross-comparative case studies and which he here develops, step by step, into a working model for emergence.

The last chapter is a discussion of and an illustrative new emphasis on understanding as the unique feature of case research as an experience of enrichment and a liberation of the researcher from preconceived – all too often second hand - perceptions. This further more add new dimensions to subjective-objective controversy surrounding case studies. Binding interpretation, explanation and understanding together.

From Expretation Towards Explanation

An alleged outside approach

The “truest” cause

– Facets from the history of social research since Thucydides

“Do not let your self be beaten”

Towards rules for the social

Introducing weak and strong explanations

Cause – A white dove or…?

On the road from weak towards stronger explanations

Behaviourism, statistical analysis and experiments

Towards stronger explanations, – from linear to more complex rules

An extension of the Social Positivism of Durkheim

Arguments in favour of explanatory designs

The call for reliability

Generalization as a practical challenge, external validity

A most breath taking challenge

Examples of emergence – however speculative – in the social domain

Models of emergent social behaviour

Emergence as an analytical tool for social research

Emergence sets the stage for longitudinal case research

The tension between an interpretative and the explanatory approach

Towards Understanding As Enrichment

Introduction

“Understanding” – a word with a multitude of meanings

Introducing the approaches of Weber, Schleiermacher, Dilthey as well as Schütz to “understanding”

Understanding as an expression of an inward search for recognition

Taking the Other for granted, as the anti theses to understanding

Towards understanding as a process of receivement

Helping the Other to get in touch with himself

Outlining the scene for telling and being told

Coping and enrichment as an ever expanding process

Understanding, as a commitment to a methodological principle of ignorance

Receivement metaphorically expanded to include text-reading

“Dancing around the beer box” or aligning text with sense

From explanation and interpretation to understanding one’s self – the promise of emancipation